Uri Avnery

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Yasser Arafat and Uri Avnery.
Yasser Arafat and Uri Avnery.

Uri Avnery (Hebrew: אורי אבנרי‎, also transliterated Uri Avneri, born September 10, 1923 in Beckum, Germany as Helmut Ostermann), is an Israeli journalist, left wing peace activist, and former Knesset member, who was originally a member of the right wing Revisionist Zionist movement.

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[edit] Career

Uri made aliyah in 1933.[1] As a youth, he was a member of the Revisionist Zionist paramilitary group, the Irgun, having joined at 15. Avnery would become famously disenchanted with the Irgun's tactics, and would leave the group altogether by 1942. In a 2003 interview with journalist Jon Elmer, Avnery recounts his differences with the Irgun's core methodologies thusly:

Elmer: Can you discuss your 1945 essay, Terrorism: the infantile disease of the Hebrew revolution? How was it different from the disease of Palestinian terror of their current revolution for statehood?
Avnery: When I left the Irgun, at the age of 19, one of the reasons was that I didn't like the methods of terror applied by the Irgun at the time. When they put, that is to say we put, bombs in the Arab markets of Jaffa and Jerusalem and Haifa, and killed scores of people - men, women and children - in retaliation for similar acts by the Arabs, I didn't back this. I thought there were other methods. But it left me with a lasting understanding of what gets people to join such organizations, and I understand the Palestinians who join these [terrorist/resistance] organizations.[2]

In the 1948 Arab-Israeli War he was a fighter in the Samson's Foxes jeep unit (and also wrote its anthem). Afterwards, he wrote a book about the war, called In the Fields of Philistia (Hebrew: בשדות פלשת‎, Bi-Sdot Pleshet).

During the 1950s and the 1960s he was the publisher and chief editor of the HaOlam HaZeh weekly magazine, an anti-establishment tabloid known for many sensational scoops. The formula seemed to work, as for many years it was Israel's leading alternative-media publication.

Avnery created a political party bearing the name of his magazine, This World – New Power, and was elected to the Knesset in the 1965 election. Although he retained his seat in the 1969 election, the party disintegrated and Avery founded a new party, Meri, though it failed to win any seats in the 1973 elections. He returned to the Knesset as a member of the Left Camp of Israel after the 1977 election, but did not retain his seat in the 1981 election. He was later involved in the Progressive List for Peace.

Uri Avnery famously met Yassir Arafat on July 3, 1982 during the "battle of Beirut" -- which it is claimed is the first time an Israeli met personally with Yassir Arafat. [1]

He later turned to left-wing activism and founded the Gush Shalom (Hebrew: גוש שלום‎, Peace Bloc) movement in 1993, which he leads up to this day. He is now a devout secularist and strongly opposed to the Orthodox influence in religious and political life.

[edit] Strategy

Avnery is noted for what he calls the small wheel effect, which he invokes to explain why small, highly motivated groups like Gush Shalom can have greater influence on the Israeli public for their struggle than would have a classic political party (as was Haolam Hazeh):

We call this the "small wheel effect". A small wheel with its own drive pushes a larger wheel, which drives an even larger wheel, and so on, until it moves the center of the consensus. What we say today "Peace Now" will say tomorrow, and a large part of the public on the day after.[3]

[edit] Quotes

"You can’t tell me about terrorism, I was a terrorist."[4]

[edit] Recent activities

[edit] Bibliography (partial list):

  • Avnery, Uri (1968): Israel Without Zionists: A Plea for Peace in the Middle East, MacMillan Co., New York, Hardbound (1st Edition in 1968; many reprints)
  • Avnery, Uri (1986): My Friend, the Enemy, Zed Books; Paperback. 1986 ISBN 0862322154 Paperback; Lawrence Hill & Co, 1987 ISBN 0882082132 Hard cover; Lawrence Hill Books (1987) ISBN 0882082124

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.knesset.gov.il/mk/eng/mk_eng.asp?mk_individual_id_t=238
  2. ^ Jon Elmer (14 September 2003). Violence is a symptom; the occupation is the disease.
  3. ^ http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1163819770 Grossman's Dilemma
  4. ^ Uri Avnery and Richard Swift, "Blunt Talk" New Internationalist, issue 348, August 2002
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